PA nursing facility employees awarded historic $35.8 million judgement for stolen wages

Pittsburgh, Pa. ( WJET/WFXP ) — After a five-year legal battle, a federal court in Pittsburgh has awarded one of the largest wage recovery judgments in U.S. history to current and former employees of 15 residential skilled nursing, rehabilitation and assisted living facilities.

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) announced Tuesday the court awarded $35.8 million in overtime back wages and damages to 6,000 past and present employees of the facilities owned by CEO Samuel “Sam” Halper with CHMS Group and the individual facilities were also found liable.

The suit was initially brought in 2018 and dragged to 2024 for refusing to fix any of their previous violations and culminated in a 13-day trial featuring 50 witnesses and 600 exhibits about multiple years of practices that violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

After the trial, the court ruled the owners and facilities used CHMS Group to implement and oversee payment practices at the 15 facilities scattered across western PA.

“The U.S. District Court’s decisive and historic ruling that Sam Halper and his nursing facilities willfully violated labor laws affirmed the Department of Labor’s position that the employers committed wage theft intentionally,” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda. “The outcome of the department’s investigation and litigation also shows our unwavering commitment to enforcing the employee protections in the Fair Labor Standards Act and ensuring employers fulfill their obligation to comply with the law.”

Specifically, the court ruled Halper, the facilities and CHMS did the following:

• Willfully failed to pay employees for all hours worked, including work done during meal breaks.
• Failed to incorporate all promised compensation, including non-discretionary bonuses and shift differentials, when calculating overtime pay.
• Avoided paying overtime by incorrectly treating employees as exempt from the act’s overtime requirements.
• Did not keep accurate records of hours employees worked and compensation due for those hours.

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Halper, CHMS Group and the 15 facilities are all permanently forbidden from further FLSA violations to go along with the $35.8 million payout.

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